


Daffodils and Daisies

by Rangerskirt



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Connor Deserves Happiness, Connor centric, Connor whump, Depression, Flower Language, Hanahaki Disease, Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, I lied there are kisses to the forehead, M/M, Platonic Love, Post-Canon, Romance, Sappy, Sort of since there is no sex and no kissing, Temporarily Unrequited Love, connor has it, mentioned thoughts of suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-26
Updated: 2018-07-26
Packaged: 2019-06-16 15:53:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15440493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rangerskirt/pseuds/Rangerskirt
Summary: Hank and Connor have seen a lot of different types of crimes and murders cropping up since the official laws giving androids rights have been passed, but this was something new. In fact nothing about the scene screamed crime at all, an android had been found dead with flowers sprouting out of its body.-------AKA: Post-Peaceful Revolution, deviants are beginning to be afflicted by the hanahaki disease. (i.e the disease when your love is unrequited flowers grow out of you until requited or one dies from the flower growth.)





	Daffodils and Daisies

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [水仙与雏菊](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15454197) by [ilovehannibalforever](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilovehannibalforever/pseuds/ilovehannibalforever)
  * Translation into Español available: [Daffodils and Daisies -Traducción-](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15740277) by [Maya_0196](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maya_0196/pseuds/Maya_0196)



> A/N: Trying to write in present tense which isn't normal for me, apologies if it's bad or I switch tenses randomly, let me know along with any other grammar issues and I'll fix it asap.

It isn't often that Connor is left completely speechless, but staring at the dead android laying in the middle of a small apartment kitchen with flowers bursting through his abdomen and chest but all over his body in general. The android revolution had come to a close over a year and a half ago and subsequently android right laws only several months later, since then Connor and Hank had no end of android crimes and murders just like human ones but they'd never seen anything quite like this.

His partner sighs heavily and pulls his gray hair back into a short ponytail to keep it out of his eyes, "Connor can you do a quick search and tell me what those flowers are?" his voice low but gentle as he starts searching the rest of the dimly lit apartment. "Of course, Hank." Scanning:

 

-Type: (Yellow)Wild Daffodil: Can be used as make-shift medicine.  
Flower Language: New Beginnings or Unrequited Love

-Type: (Pink)Anemone: Toxic in large consumptions.  
Flower Language: Death or Forsaken love

-Type: (Red)Tulip: N/A  
Flower Language: Declaration of Love

 

Connor scans the internet quickly but only kept pertinent information, things that seemed to correlate with each other. "I don't believe they were used to cause death, a few of these cause discomfort for human bodies but none of that should affect thirium the way they have been." he calls to Hank, "In flower language all of them have something to do with some sort of love."

Returning from his look around Hank kneels next to Connor to give the awful, but also sadly beautiful, scene a look over. "There aren't any signs that someone broke in for a fight and I don't see how this could be a murder or even how it happened in the first place. Thirium can't support flower growth yet seeing where the growth is largest suggests otherwise, near the thirium pump and up the major tubes in his chest. All of these other areas with flowers poking out are much smaller tubes."

Connor smiles just a little and glances at his partner, "Have you actually been reading that android manual I left for you last month?" Hank had complained about not knowing how to save Connor's life compared to helping a human officer in the field, so he had left an android-basics book on the man's desk. "Tch shut up Connor you know I get bored now since you've put a limit on my weekly drinking." his voice held no malice.

A warmth spreads through Connor's body starting from his mechanical heart, the same place the android on the ground had so many flowers blooming out of. Things between he and Hank had been so good since the revolution but none better than the last three months in particular. He had no idea what had changed but the two of them had this synchronicity both at home and in the field that he had no way of describing with words.

Becoming a deviant was the best decision of his artificial life, sure there were bad emotions and he'd experienced those too, but the good ones made everything so worth it.

Not wiping the smile from his face Connor stands, "I don't believe this to be a murder but I will talk with a few of the neighbors to see if anything strange has been going on recently." Hank nods and off the android goes, knocking on doors. Most don't open or get any response, a few do but there isn't much information to collect.

What he does learn is that the android, whose name is Andrew, is a quiet but friendly neighbor that has a human lover that comes around once or twice a week. She's unidentified, no one knows much about her other than she is relatively short with long brown hair and that the two have been arguing audibly a lot lately, and that she hasn't been around for over two weeks.

"Not much we can do since this place has no cameras other than to hope she hears about this and contacts us. I just wonder...they had to have grown out of him, why didn't he try plucking any out?" Hank says after hearing what Connor's found out.

He is quiet most of the way home from the precinct after they fill out their paperwork and leave the body with the professionals in the lab and then quickly flees to his room. It's Cole's old room, eight months after becoming deviant he'd helped Hank clean the room out with what to keep and what to donate. A very emotional day for them both, Hank's tears were inconsolable no matter how hard he tried but they made it through, he still avoided the room most of the time.

Connor locks the door before stripping down to just undergarments so he can look in his bedroom corner mirror. Approximately ten small flower buds growing in an imperfect circle around his thirium pump, more buds sporadically lining up his left arm and leg right along where the tube ran under his artificial skin.

He knows why the android wouldn't have pulled any of the flowers out, he's tried, it's painful. So fucking painful that even the smallest tug had once almost sent him down to his knees, but if left untouched and unbothered Connor usually forgot that they were even under his clothes.

 

-Type: Daffodil/Jonquil  
Flower Language: Desire for returned affection

 

None were bloomed despite the very first having cropped up a day before his deviancy and then slowly more came over time. He was scared, this was something completely unheard of until the call came in today about the android who had died from flowers growing from his body. Connor had assumed it was a defect in his prototype but something deep down told him that something more serious was wrong, now he knew for sure. Should he tell Hank?

Before he could decide a knock sounds on his door, "Connor are you gonna watch the game with me?" That's right the Detroit Gears were playing tonight, no they had started ten minutes ago and he was missing the game! He stands quickly to yank on clothes before he practically throws the door open surprising Hank, leaving the man blinking before smirking. "You've got a clock in your head but you forgot that the game started, deviants are the weirdest things."

It isn't until halftime that his mind starts swirling with emotions and thoughts, Sumo is curled on one end of the couch and Hank on the other leaving Connor squished in the middle. He can feel their legs press together and it's almost enough to overwhelm his sensors even if both of them are wearing pants, his stomach feels heavy and he can't manage to look at his partner.

When had these feelings started? Tonight wasn't the first time but Connor can't remember the first either. "You alright Connor? You've been sort of spacey since the crime scene earlier..You're barely even paying attention to the game." It was true, Hank had to keep nudging him and asking if he saw what happened. "Not to mention your LED has been going in and out of yellow the last twenty minutes."

Connor didn't have the courage to remove the LED, or he hadn't yet but he was sure one day he'd feel comfortable enough in his deviancy to pull it off, Hank usually tried to ignore it to give his friend some privacy with his emotions. "Sorry Hank I've just...I've had a lot on my mind, nothing serious."

Hank's eyes are on him and studying every line of his frame with an intensity like he's thinking about something just as hard as Connor is before he smiles. "I know that look, you've got a crush on somebody. Don't deny it I'm too old to fool, I ain't gonna bug you about who I'm just happy whatever you're thinking about is something good." That's the end of that, neither of them says another single word about crushes or romance for the entire night and instead just focus on the game.

~.~.~.~.~.~

It's been three weeks since the DPD found and filed away the case on Andrew the android, since then there had been reported six more victims of the same style in that time. All different models with nothing the same between them other than being deviants, all had different flowers growing out of their bodies with meanings relating to love.

After the third case he and Hank had been relieved from having the specifications assigned to them, the Hanahaki Case as it had been labeled was officially labeled as a disease inflicting androids and not a crime being caused by anyone. Still they were getting reports when androids were just found in alleyways or dead in their apartments, more than the six found had come forward alive confessing they had noticed flowers budding out of their bodies and were currently being studied.

Connor was not one of them, he kept his buds hidden even in their fast progression over the last three weeks. He hadn't been home as much as usual over the weeks either, going out on his own with crap excuses to go investigate on his own and what he found scared him down to his endoskeleton.

The flowers pertaining to sadness and love, several of the dead androids had been notably pining after someone and ignored as well as many of the still living ones, the way more buds popped up the more he found himself thinking about Hank...It shouldn't be possible for a disease to be linked to unrequited love but that was the only thing Connor could link all of the facts to.

Just this morning Connor had contacted Markus in hopes he might have some more information, to his luck the other android did. He had a contact that he was positive Connor was going to want to speak to. Which was why he was currently acting like a thug waiting in a dark back alley of Detroit Downtown.

His audio processors picked up the soft steps of feet approaching from his right, he turns quickly to meet the eyes of a red-headed android woman. "You're Markus' friend Connor right?" she asks him, fidgeting her hands together with unease.

"Yes, you must be Cynthia." he says back and she nods, "What can you tell me about these?" Connor pulls his sleeve up to show the healthy flower buds still unbloomed on his wrist then quickly covered them again. Her face is stern and almost emotionless, "You have many of them..."

"It started slow but they've been growing faster lately and I've noticed a few just barely starting to bloom, please...anything you can tell me is vital." he begs not even trying to hide the desperation in his voice. "I'm not ready to die and give up what I have."

The thought of leaving Hank, Sumo, and their happy life together behind was more than he could bear. Never getting to take Sumo for a walk or scratch him behind the ears, never getting to watch the Detroit Gears with Hank, solve cases with him, never getting to joke with the man and feel that warm feeling flow through his body again...

"There's a way to stop it but you won't like it, I was going to start spreading the information around to all of the androids with Markus' help but he said you might want to talk to me privately. He said you're sort of shy and private when it comes to matters like this." He had to remember to thank Markus for that later, the last thing he wants is for Hank to get the whiff of anything wrong with him.

"I survived by giving myself a thirium transfusion similar to how humans have blood transfusions, slowly the flowers all died but....so did my feelings for the person I loved." she says blatantly. "I have no proof because I'm the only one who has survived so far but I'm afraid the loss of feelings might be the price paid for living. The only other thing you can hope for is the person to love you back when you tell them."

He doesn't want this, he doesn't want to choose from any of those options! Panic settles over his skin, all he wants is to continue living how they are he has no need to force Hank into anything further even if Connor wishes they might get there one day. He also isn't willing to throw those feelings away, he's only had feelings for a short time so to turn back the clock to an unfeeling machine feels close to a death sentence.

"Telling him will for sure make them go away?" Connor's voice shakes, he can't help it, he's scared.

"I'm not sure, but these flowers are definitely related to love so maybe this person you love can help...I told the man I loved how I felt and he rejected me. They bloomed faster after that." she warns. "I don't know anything else so if you don't mind..."

"No of course, thank you for your time."

Connor walks home letting the cool evening air calm his nerves at least a little but that only made his mood sour. He steps in the front door and is immediately greeted by pounds of fluff barreling into his legs, "Hey Sumo.." he pushes past the dog and ignores Hank sitting on the couch with a beer in his hand watching tv. "Hey Connor, where you been I haven't seen you all day?"

He can't find the words to respond, it feels like his throat will clench up and turn into sobs if he even tries. So he walks straight to his room and closes the door behind him much harder than he means to then locks it.

He wants to hold onto these feelings tightly while he can, the day might come when he has to give them up just to stay by Hank's side numbly. This isn't fair, he isn't even nearly ready to stop the warm butterfly feeling in his stomach that flutters every time he's with his partner.

So the logical thing to do? He self-sabotages himself.

Things are strained between them over the next two weeks, Connor knows he's been irritable, cut off, and just plain mean to Hank but the more he thinks about his partner the more flowers grow and the more they start to bloom. Now they've even begun to physically hurt even when he doesn't touch them.

Work is painful to get through each day, he treats Hank like a disdainful stranger and once home he locks himself away, ignoring every worried knock and call that comes for him. Silently every night he undresses and cries, watching as the flowers spread beautifully over his body.

The hurt look in his partner's eyes every time he's snapped at or ignored makes Connor feel guiltier and guiltier, it's best if he distances himself so that his favorite human will feel less pain when he dies. Connor has already decided never to tell anyone that this is happening to him, he has half a mind to just throw himself into a river and let the cold water freeze his circuits until dead.

He's a coward. For hiding his feelings from Hank. For hiding his sickness from Hank and worrying the man. He's a fucking coward.

Tonight is no different, their day off but Connor hasn't let his room once. Hank has knocked twice and Sumo has scratched once at the door but never does he answer. It's almost six in the evening and he has removed his shirt to stare at himself in his mirror as he sits on the floor.

The flowers are worse, so much worse. Particularly the ones around his thirium pump, jonquils, wild daffodils, and daisies littered everywhere. Some were just peaking with color while others were fully bloomed now, his body ached more and more each day and at the moment Connor didn't want to move a single synthetic muscle.

It was only a matter of time before something broke between him and Hank, tonight was that night. Another knock at his door, louder than usual and a booming but sober voice. "Connor open the fuck up I'm tired of whatever this is, talk to me so I can understand why you're upset with me!!" Of course Hank would think he'd done something wrong when that wasn't true at all, he should have known Hank always assumed the worst of himself.

Connor clamps his hands over his ears though it does almost nothing to muffle the noises of yells and hard knocks that repeat several times. A louder bang echoes through the whole room and Connor flinches, Hank's kicked his door in out of pure frustration and stands in the doorway. His chest heaving with angry heavy breathes but he just stares, Connor knows that he sees the flowers, the recognition fills him but the anger doesn't go away.

He marches over and grabs Connor's arm, yanks him to his feet to yell in his face this time. "How long has this been going on!? You didn't think to fucking _tell_ me!?" Fingers squeeze over the plants on his arm, he can't help but to cry out in pain and try to claw Hank's death grip off of his wrist.

"Stop! Stop!" he gasps and repeats his beg over and over until he dissolves into tears. "Please it hurts, stop!" His nerves feel like they're on fire until Hank slowly lets go, surely expecting Connor to flee his presence. Instead Connor slumps into him, forehead on his chest and avoiding pressing their fronts together so that the buds won't tug on anything. "I didn't know how to tell you Hank.."

The touch was hesitant but Hank wraps his arms around Connor's back, holding him close but loosely. "I've been wondering why you were avoiding me, I couldn't remember doing anything to you but you've been acting like I shot Sumo..." Hank's voice broke, he brings a hand up to cradle the back of Connor's head affectionately.

"I know!" he cries unable to stop the pathetic cracking in his words, "I've been so awful to you, it's inexcusable! I jus-I'm just _so_ scared Hank, can you forgive me?" He could feel the hot tears rolling down his cheeks.

"I'm still really upset but...but I can understand why you did what you did, I was like that when we first met. Hell I acted like this the first few months you were crashing on my couch. We'll figure this out, we've got time...I'm not going to lose you, I refuse to." Hank pushes him back to look him in the eyes, careful of where he puts his hands. "I'll do anything to help you, I hope you know that Connor."

He gives a curt nod and wipes the tears from his cheeks quickly, "It didn't start out so bad, but lately they've become so painful it's hard to ignore." Connor stands up straight but then sits on his bed, Hank sits next to him and begins looking some of the flowers over closely. "I haven't been keeping up with the research, what do we know about this so far?"

Connor swallows hard, it feels like his throat is trying to clench so he can't speak so he forces it out. "It's exclusive to androids, specifically androids who are in love and that love is unrequited. No one is sure how or why it started, right now it's a complete mystery."

"Love?" Hank's voice is breathless for a moment, " _Fuck_ who couldn't love you?" his voice is lighter, almost a bit playful with an offended edge to it. "It's that person you were daydreaming about a while back isn't it?"

"Yes, I don't think that they feel the same way."

"Don't think, you mean you haven't even told them? Well shit if this comes from love you have to be honest about it, tell it to their face. You're a smart guy Connor so I'm sure...I'm sure whoever it is you have feelings for them for a reason, they probably care about you too." Connor could swear Hank's voice keeps wavering, he's trying to be strong but there's something about the tone that keeps taking over that he can't quite place.

"If they don't I'm doomed to die anyway, I suppose there isn't a point in holding it back at this rate." He was scared at the idea of giving up his feelings to be able to live, remembering how it had felt back during his first days when he hadn't been deviant and thinking he could go back to being like that. It scares him almost more than death, it certainly scares him enough to have stopped him from saying anything to Hank thus far.

He knew all along he would have to make a choice when it got to the bitter end but it seems Hank has decided for him, it was the moment of truth. Their relationship would change one way or another, statistics told Connor he had a good chance of his feeling being reciprocated but his emotions remind him that there is always a chance of rejection.

"Hank it's...it's you.." a shaky smile pulls at Connor's lips and he rubs his hands under his eyes to brush away a few stray tears. "I love you so much but I didn't want to scare you or make things weird." Not to mention he didn't want to force Hank to pretend to love him just because he thought Connor would die, but Hank was a painfully blatant person he wouldn't do that.

"Me? But I'm-shit Connor...If you'd just told me sooner.." He grabs Connor roughly but hugs him tight and kisses the top of his head. "Pretty sure I love you too kid, thought I was just imagining things between us." Just like that, that was all it took, all of the pain in Connor's body eased in the blink of an eye. Flowers remained at the moment but the pain had faded and his shoulders were able to relax.

"Promise me you won't hide shit like this from me again, otherwise next time I swear to fucking god I'll punch you so hard-" Hank threatens but stops when Connor throws his arms around his neck to hug him tighter. "I promise. I promise!"

"Too bad this stuff is deadly, you're really cute with all of these flowers on you." Even this quickly many of the flowers had begun to droop they had been cut off from their growth source. "I've also never seen you cry before, that sucked."

They both manage a small laugh before Hank asks, "So I recognize some of these, are these ones daisies? What do those mean?"

"I believe they're for loyal love, something like that." he touches one and plucks it off with a small wince, they definitely don't hurt as much anymore. "That suits you." Hank responds, "Definitely a loyal guy."

"No." he smiles and shakes his head, "I think daisies suit you more than me." Playfully he tucks the flower into Hank's hair, the yellow center stands out bright against the man's graying hair.

Connor decides that flowers make sense, love really is like a flower. If treated right and given to the right people to care for it can bloom beyond beauty, they wilt and die when the opposite is true, and you can live without it but the world will look a little less beautiful.

He wants to keep this flower that's still growing between them, he isn't sure what kind of flower it will turn out to be, what color or fast it will bloom. But it's theirs and he and Hank will take care of it together.


End file.
